A forum for those current students who are or may be transferring from one school to another. Post any questions, advice, or other transfer related comments here.

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I just applied to transfer to Harvard, and I have no idea what to expect as far as timeline, chances, or really anything. Any other transfer hopefuls want to speculate or commiserate? (Of course if you actually know stuff, that's useful too).

I'm also planning on getting my application in in the next 7-10 days. Have no idea what the timeline is like. Did you talk mostly about reasons for transferring, etc. in your personal statement or was it more similar to your original PS for law school applications?

lawstudent1986 wrote:I'm also planning on getting my application in in the next 7-10 days. Have no idea what the timeline is like. Did you talk mostly about reasons for transferring, etc. in your personal statement or was it more similar to your original PS for law school applications?

Mostly focused on transferring because I applied last year and was waitlisted, so they have my original PS. However, I am also applying to Stanford, and since I didn't apply there originally, I will incorporate some original PS stuff.

vanwinkle wrote:Regarding timeline, I can tell you that last year, I got the acceptance call in the third week of July. I asked for time to consider it and was told I'd have up to a week.

Wow. I am not looking forward to that wait. I thought I was done with waiting after I sat on multiple waitlists until August last year.

If I remember correctly, some people were informed they'd been admitted as transfers last year as early as the second week of July. Personally, I believe I got the call on July 20. If they stick to last year's procedure, you should get a phone call if you get in, so keep your phones on during July and if a mysterious 617 number pops up, we might be seeing you in Cambridge!

eattrucks wrote:Mostly focused on transferring because I applied last year and was waitlisted, so they have my original PS.

I'm not quite sure how to read this. Are you saying you believe they'll look at your original PS? Based on what I know, they do not.

I had assumed that they would because of the question on the application that asks if you have applied in the past. Also, they offer to use any documentation from recent applications, but they did say that they would look at it if you request that they do so. So, I guess my assumption wasn't as substantiated as I thought.

Did you submit your 1L transcript through lsac? i think my grades won't come out in time to do that and thought I would just load a pdf file of the transcript.

The HLS website says: "Law school grades for the entire first year. Although we prefer an official transcript, we realize that it may be difficult in some cases to obtain one until late summer. Therefore, we will consider photocopies of your grade reports or some other account of your grades. Although we may be able to reach a tentative decision to admit on the basis of unofficial grades, we are not able to offer admission to any applicant without first receiving an official transcript."

not sure if that means i dont have to submit any law school info to lsac. all my other stuff (ug transcript, recs, ps) are on lsac and I would be uploading a pdf of my transcript to lsac but not sending an official transcript with the lsac forms so as to make sure i can submit on time.

Last edited by JJ3005 on Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

eattrucks wrote:Mostly focused on transferring because I applied last year and was waitlisted, so they have my original PS.

I'm not quite sure how to read this. Are you saying you believe they'll look at your original PS? Based on what I know, they do not.

I had assumed that they would because of the question on the application that asks if you have applied in the past. Also, they offer to use any documentation from recent applications, but they did say that they would look at it if you request that they do so. So, I guess my assumption wasn't as substantiated as I thought.

They might do a cursory check to see if your file was flagged before, or something. It may also be to protect themselves (preserving the right to look at your old file if they really want to) or disclosure (for the bar later). But I've been told they don't ordinarily look at your prior application at all.

eattrucks wrote:And out of curiosity, what is it that you "know" about the process?

I successfully transferred here. And then I talked to some of the adcomms. (They put up an impenetrable wall between themselves and unadmitted prospects, but once you're in it's at least possible to reach them.)

JJ3005 wrote:Did you submit your 1L transcript through lsac? i think my grades won't come out in time to do that and thought I would just load a pdf file of the transcript.

The HLS website says: "Law school grades for the entire first year. Although we prefer an official transcript, we realize that it may be difficult in some cases to obtain one until late summer. Therefore, we will consider photocopies of your grade reports or some other account of your grades. Although we may be able to reach a tentative decision to admit on the basis of unofficial grades, we are not able to offer admission to any applicant without first receiving an official transcript."

not sure if that means i dont have to submit any law school info to lsac. all my other stuff (ug transcript, recs, ps) are on lsac and I would be uploading a pdf of my transcript to lsac but not sending an official transcript with the lsac forms so as to make sure i can submit on time.

I would just call admissions. I am guessing you can choose to submit through LSAC or send transcripts directly to Harvard. What they mean by "unofficial" is emailing them a .pdf of your unofficial transcript and then later updating them with your official transcript sent from your school, either directly to Harvard or processed through LSAC. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong.

Re: the transcript question, Harvard will NOT accept transcripts by fax or email. I sent my spring grades via .PDF, and received a nice email which said they will update your file with an unofficial transcript ONLY if is received in the mail.

I'm dying here. Over a month of "application ready for review" without any indication that they are taking steps to decide on transfer applications. I wish they would just say: "Your application is in some pile on someone's desk (we're not sure where) we may get to it sometime before August, then again we may not (we'll see how we're feeling)." I could go on with a useless rant about my anxiety and thinking that I was done with this last year, but you've all heard that before.

Best wishes to you all, and please post the moment anyone notices any movement.

As far as I can tell, there was a wave of acceptances last Friday, and another one today. That being said, if you've heard nothing this does not mean you have been rejected. Last year, waves of acceptances came all the way through the end of July (maybe even early August).

I am still waiting. My stats are T25, top 2.5%, which I think should be competitive (but who knows). So, just because you haven't heard back doesn't necessarily mean you're not in. There is still hope for us!

Given that transfers apparently have until only July 22 to accept I think it's clear that H is operating on an earlier schedule this year and that we shouldn't really expect a July 20ish wave as in previous years. This is especially true as so many people seem to have been accepted already.

Actually,

Did anybody receive an admit from Harvard who only sent an unofficial 1L transcript with their application. That's what I did (I only just recently had my final official transcript sent) so I'm wondering if maybe they don't call until they have the official transcript. Website says they make tentative decisions based on photocopies and unofficial copies but don't known if tentative means they call.

Fishmouse wrote:Given that transfers apparently have until only July 22 to accept I think it's clear that H is operating on an earlier schedule this year and that we shouldn't really expect a July 20ish wave as in previous years. This is especially true as so many people seem to have been accepted already.

There may be another wave on/around July 25 and depend on how many of the current admits declined. That seems about on schedule from last year.

Fishmouse wrote:Given that transfers apparently have until only July 22 to accept I think it's clear that H is operating on an earlier schedule this year and that we shouldn't really expect a July 20ish wave as in previous years. This is especially true as so many people seem to have been accepted already.

There may be another wave on/around July 25 and depend on how many of the current admits declined. That seems about on schedule from last year.

But last year it seemed like only a few were admitted the 12th and then the majority the 20th, making it seem like the July 20 admits weren't quasiwaitlisted as you suggest